First Or Second Gig?!? Which One Is Better? (State Reasons)

in my opinion i prefer the first gig over the second, but only slightly as both gigs are absolutely brilliant. i give the first gig an edge over the second because of the laughing man concept which involved extreme hacking, genious plotting & overall a great stratagem...

The first season actually had some episodes I would call "mediorce" or even "weak"....not so with the second season. Also, the first season had a long stretch of Stand Alone episodes (seven, I believe) and it was a bit hard to fall back into the plot when it returned. The second season has keep a good focus on the main plot, even in episodes that really have nothing to do with it.

I agree first gig had great concepts but failed on most other levels, the one's that went beyond intellectual stimuli. Second gig gives us brains and brawn and lets face it not very many people watch anime for deep thinking alone. The whole Kuze story-line can be viewed as this seasons puppet man. Since once again we have a season mostly dedicated to a central figure.

Oh, no... no! I honestly can't stay right now because of the factors involved. However, I currently prefer the first season. I gathered all seven special edition DVDs of 1st GIG before I started watching so I could do it in one sitting. With all the drama that's going on in my life, watching 2nd GIG in over half a year is not good. I'm constantly forgetting things. I loved that 1st GIG gave me a break in between the story episodes. 2nd GIG hasn't done this for me. I can see the difference in the Dual Episodes, but I don't see the difference between the Dividual and Individual.

I liked 1st better, but I think thats only because I got to see all the episodes. I love a show like this where you have to listen to the characters(nerd static here) and I loved the finale episodes, completely threw me off guard. Though (I hope I don't get flamed for saying this) I wish Motoko and Bato would hurry up if you know what I'm saying.

i got to say 2nd GIG is the best. Its very clever, upbeat, and exciting. especially these last few episodes which has left me very excited! And sadly its almost to an end.

the first season was great too. I loved the fact that they incorporated the Catcher in the Rye into the story. Acually 1st GIG got me to read the wonderful book Cathcer in the Rye. I also admit i wanted to learn how to fold paper cranes becuase of the 2nd gig.

Oh... I can't chose they are both awsome. I really liked 1st's intro when I first saw it I thouht this show was in 3d or something lol. I like 2nd's intro music more though. I do like that they stay on topic more in the seconed instead of making me think I missed an episode or something. I did like the laughing man insident too. They both rock.

You'll notice in 2nd GIG how all of the title screens are one colour. In 1st GIG the title screen was either green for SA or blue for C. That alone tells you that they're all going to link even if the episode designators are different (IN, DU, DI). Also, the colour chosen is gray. I don't know if it was deliberate or not, but using that colour to me creates good symbolism. In other words, everything that happens in the episodes falls into a gray area.

I loved them both but I prefer the 2nd Gig over the first. The reason mainly has to do with the plot itself, not neccessarily the amount of stand alone/individual eps versus complex/dual/dividual eps. Though I did like how most of the individual eps in 2nd Gig still ended up relating back to something important in the main story. But I really believe that the 2nd Gig plot was more enjoyable because it was much more grounded and easier to latch onto, even for people new to the series. The 1st Gig had a good story, and the Laughing Man was very cool, but there were times where it was just so freakin abstract that it was hard to grasp any real-world connection to the motives of the key players.

Obviously that's not the case with 2nd Gig. All the story elements involving refugees, terrorists, national soviergnty, and war in general gave the show a solid foundation that modern audiences can sympathize with. But here's the key - despite all of this concrete reality in the story, they still make it blend together seamlessly with the key abstract themes we expect from a "Ghost in the Shell" story. Kuze was truley a "Stand Alone Complex", but I was able to identify and sympathize with him much more easily than with the Laughing Man. It also had a bit of extra fortune, in the uncanny timeliness of it's airing on Adult Swim, coinciding with the public debates about immigrants in the US, the war in Iraq, etc. This only made its effect even more powerful to US audiences (at least, to those of us who watch the news).

I also really enjoyed the subplot with the Tachikomas, getting a first-person perspective of the Prime Minister and the inner struggles of her administration (in the past this was usually only handled with vague references and abstract notions about corrupt government bureaucracies), and getting a look at some of the Section 9 peoples' pasts. The episode with the duel between Saitou the sniper and Kusanagi was freaking cool as hell.

But still, despite being more down-to-Earth than anything we've really ever seen from GITS before, it never betrayed its key themes about technology blurring the lines between body and soul and making the whole world more of an abstract notion. I've been thinking about Kuze's plan for "liberating" the refugees being very similar to Human Instrumentality from Evangelion, but that's a topic for another thread. In fact, I think I'll go start that right now - come check it out please!

season 2 starts to over explain things. at least in the first few episodes, which considering i'm getting them disk by disk i'm not even half way through, im hoping it gets better. but i liked how direct the first season was. maybe it did stray away from the main plot for a few episodes in a row. but at least they were all interesting. the first few episode started boring me once i got to season 2 and its taken allot to get into it. the main plot episodes tend to drag on and over explain things, they start to sound like generic animes. thats what i liked about the movies and the first season. they didn't explain every little detail, they assumed that the audience was half intelligent and could figure things out on their own with minimal details.

First of I will explain my point of veiw. 1st GIG is classic anime art. 2nd GIG is much more cyberpunk. They are very different and hard to compare. As for SSS it starts of as cyberpunk and slowly turns to the classic anime masterpeice. I still have to say 2nd gig because its main story is much more involved.

Both are good and as I've stated in a thread elsewhere that it complimented each other. Giving a backstory and some character development for it's key characters.

The 1st gig was good though it made my head ache quite a lot of times because I had a hard time grasping all the information. I liked the Laughing man angle, the bribery, high level corruption, cover-up, political maneouvering, unwarranted use of new technology, surveilance etc.

The individual episodes were also good like "Testation" and "Android and I" were quite good and to me it deserves more commendation. The question about religion/morality, love and respect for parents; the use of obscure French films, modelling the Jeri after Jean Seberg was really good, those fine details and the twist in the plot make this series really stand out. I also like the Tachikomas. Comedy relief they may be, but their presence made the series even more enjoyable. I loved it when they developed their own consciousness and they volunteered to help rescue Batou in "Barrage" episode.

The 2nd gig is also equally good because it covers matters previously touched in the 1st gig. It also delved on issues that we could easily relate more like terrorism, rising nationalsim/isolationalism, spread of imperialism and conflict in the Middle East. With the current skyrocketing of food and oil prices it is inevitable that future conflicts may soon be sparked by the high demand of these commodities. In the GitS universe 2 more world wars will happen and I hope to God we wont imitate the anime. I really liked the "love story" between the Major and Kuze, I was touched by how they first met as young children and were separated. They met again as enemies until under a different circumstance they got to know who each person was. When they realized it, they hugged. That moment in that episode, touched me in a way that I really felt sorry for the Major and Kuze, fate was so unfair to them.

Other than that I liked the individual episodes, Night Cruise (poor fellow, got really messed-up due to STD), Make Up, Poker Face (great, great episode!) and Red Data (damn kid, should have taken the Major's bluff!). The Tachikomas are a blast and prove to be really dependable in battle as well as "agents".

To be honest, chosing which season is great is like chosing which leg or arm you do not want to be cut-off. Of course you say, you need 'em both!